NRCAT Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 15, 2020
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NRCAT Joins Human Rights and National Security Partners in Full-Page Ad in Minneapolis Star Tribune

(Washington, DC) - On June 15, 2020, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture joined human rights and national security in a full-page ad in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The ad reads:

Click for Larger Image of the Ad

NRCAT Affirms the Sacred Value of Black Lives
On June 5, 2020, the staff of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture issued this statement:

The staff of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture affirms the sacred value of Black lives and condemns the anti-Black violence we have collectively mourned in recent days with the murders of Mr. George Floyd and Ms. Breonna Taylor by the police. Our experience working to end torture in U.S. policy, practice and culture teaches us that such acts of state violence are not isolated incidents but rather expose a culture of violence against people of color. This same state violence also pervades U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers, where on any given day tens of thousands of people, disproportionately adults and youth of color, are held in conditions of solitary confinement, a practice considered a form of torture by the United Nations, medical professionals and other developed countries.

We stand in solidarity with those whose moral outrage has courageously led them to engage in ongoing public protest demanding racial justice. We condemn the militarization of police departments and the use of National Guard and federal security forces, including riot teams from agencies like the Federal Bureau of Prisons. This level of response to peaceful protest only escalates tensions in our communities. We condemn the system-wide lockdown currently in force in the Federal Bureau of Prisons in response to public protests. Such actions do not make us safer as a society, but rather they poison the very soul of our nation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 11, 2019
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

New Jersey Governor Signs Historic Bill Restricting Solitary Confinement

Washington, DC - On July 11, 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the first fully comprehensive legislation limiting the use of solitary confinement enacted by a state legislature. The Isolated Confinement Restriction Act (A314/S3261) passed the Senate in a 26-3 vote and the Assembly in a 49-24 vote with 5 abstentions.

Across the United States, momentum to end the use of solitary confinement has grown tremendously as a result of coordinated campaigns led by survivors of solitary and their families, mental health professionals, legal advocates, and faith leaders.

"The Isolated Confinement Restriction Act shows that our legislators are exemplifying the type of political courage that we all need. It shows that they are on the right side of justice by curbing torture inside of New Jersey prisons," said Johnny Perez, New Jersey resident and Director of the U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 21, 2019
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

New Jersey Legislature Approves Bill Restricting Solitary Confinement

Washington, DC - On June 20, 2019, the New Jersey legislature passed legislation that if signed into law will be the first comprehensive legislation limiting the use of solitary confinement enacted by a state legislature. The Isolated Confinement Restriction Act (A314/S3261) passed the Senate in a 26-3 vote and the Assembly in a 49-24 vote with 5 abstentions. The legislation now heads to Governor Phil Murphy, who affirmed his support for the bill during his gubernatorial campaign in 2017.

"Our legislators have made the right choice today, as they did in 2016," says Rev. Charles Boyer of Salvation and Social Justice. "And we trust that our governor will take the bold step necessary to ensure that New Jersey corrections system is more humane and, ultimately, safer for all involved."

Across the United States, momentum to end the use of solitary confinement has grown tremendously as a result of coordinated campaigns led by survivors of solitary and their families, mental health professionals, legal advocates, and faith leaders.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2019
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NRCAT Praises Congress for Voting to End War in Yemen

WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier today, a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted 247 to 175 to join the Senate in passing a resolution that, if signed into law, would end U.S. support for the Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Yemen. Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture thanked Congress for this step and issued the following statement on the war:

"Our government's support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen directly implicates the U.S. in torture, killings of civilians, bombings of hospitals and school buses, and obliteration of the infrastructure necessary to feed and protect Yemen's 28 million people."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 19, 2019
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Faith Groups Call on Congress to End CIA Drone Strikes

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture joined twenty five national faith groups to send a letter to the U.S. Congress today calling upon Congress to end the CIA’s use of armed drones to carry out lethal attacks. The letter states that CIA drone strikes “amount to a secret war” over which “there has never been a robust public or congressional debate.” The letter also notes that drone strikes remove “Americans from understanding the true moral and emotional costs of taking life.”

The full text of the letter can be found below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Citizens' Commission Issues Report on CIA Rendition Flights

WASHINGTON – Earlier today, the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture issued a report on its investigation into the role North Carolina-based Aero Contractors played in the CIA’s rendition flights – the flights it used to transfer prisoners overseas to be tortured in CIA facilities and by foreign countries.

Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement about the report:

“North Carolinians have shown us what can be accomplished by a group of citizens who dedicate themselves to investigating an unjust and illegal government program. While other reports have described the CIA’s torture flights, this report lays bare the raw inhumanity of Aero Contractor’s work to shuffle individuals between nations and facilities where they were tortured, as well as the degree of local government complicity in a federal government crime.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith Leaders Oppose Record Low Refugee Resettlement Goal

WASHINGTON, DC - On Monday, September 17, 2018, the Trump Administration announced an historic low cap on the number of refugees who will be allowed into the U.S. in the next year. The 30,000 cap is one-third lower than this year’s number, in a time of the worst refugee crisis in human history.

Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, made the following statement after Secretary Mike Pompeo’s announcement of the FY2019 cap on refugee admissions:

"President Trump is irreparably damaging this nation of immigrants by slamming the door in the face of people seeking safe harbor while fleeing torture, rape, terrorism, war and poverty. I pray that this Administration will find the heart to reverse this immoral decision to severely cut the number of refugees that our country will admit."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

WASHINGTON, DC - One of the largest faith denominations in the U.S. has joined the growing consensus to end the use of prolonged solitary confinement in the United States, including at immigration detention centers, private prisons, and military jurisdictions. The Episcopal Church’s historic resolutions, passed during the 79th General Convention in July in Austin, TX, echoes the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as “The Mandela Rules,” revised by the United Nations in 2015. The General Convention resolution, D029 Condemning Prolonged Solitary Confinement as a Form of Torture, calls on all Episcopalians to amplify their voice in solidarity with human rights groups and others to end this practice.

Rebecca Linder Blachly, Director of the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, said about the resolution:

"The Episcopal Church has had a longstanding opposition to all forms of torture, including prolonged solitary confinement. The Resolution which the 79th General Convention recently passed (D029 Condemning Prolonged Solitary Confinement as a Form of Torture) reinvigorates our Church’s commitment to ending this damaging and inhumane practice, encouraging Episcopalians to urge their governments to seek alternatives to isolated confinement. We are grateful to NRCAT for their leadership and education on solitary confinement.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 6, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, 202-547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

People of Faith Express Serious Concerns Over Proposals that Roll Back APA Reforms on Torture

WASHINGTON, DC – On Monday, August 6, Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, sent a letter to American Pyschological Association (APA) leadership expressing the concerns of the U.S. faith community over two proposals, NBI 35B and NBI 13D, that would roll back APA reforms on torture.

In the letter, Rev. Stief writes:

"In such a context [the torture and indefinite detention of U.S.-held detainees at Guantanamo], military and other government psychologists cannot be seen as acting wholly independently of the government's interests – a fact that undermines the very basis of effective, ethical treatment."